New Victim Of Fireworks Attack Comes Forward
Posted May 22, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It seems to happen every year – kids using fireworks as weapons. Our own CityNews crew came under attack while covering a story on this very subject Monday. And now another man has stepped forward to tell of his own harrowing encounters with these unintended flying objects.
We know him only by his first name – Steve – but he’ll never forget the moment the explosives came whistling at his head near Port Union and Lawrence as the holiday wrapped up. It started when he was approached by a gang of youths who demanded he surrender his own roman candles. When he refused, they literally opened fire on him.
The evidence of what followed was plain – a huge hole burnt into his jacket and a large red mark decorating the upper part of his face where one of the crackers went off too close for comfort. “My hair’s pretty singed,” he reflects. “Actually this part of my eyebrow is, too.” The cowardly attackers wore bandanas over their faces so Steve can’t identify them. It was the third time in less than 48 hours these kinds of dangerous stunts were going on in the city. On Sunday, kids were firing fireworks at each other near Markham and Eglinton – the same place a similar incident happened two years ago.
Police are starting to see it happen more frequently and note it’s a criminal offence that could be punishable by jail time. “I just spoke with a sergeant in 43 Division who indicated that it seemed to him that it was going crazy in one of the parks out in their division last night,” relates P.C. George Schuurman. “It seems like it is picking up from year to year.”
Steve doesn’t hold out much hope that cops can find the idiots responsible for the crime. But he has one wish about a change in the law. “I just rather, you know, they ban stupid people,” he affirms. “Fireworks are fun. Stupid people aren’t.”
Boy burned playing with firecrackers in bedroom
